Want Low Blood Pressure? Try Passing Gas

Next time you’re sitting next to someone on the bus and they let one rip, don’t just hold your nose and turn away — congratulate them on their low blood pressure. Seems the same gas that produces farts has been shown to control blood pressure in mice.

Hydrogen sulphide — the smelly, toxic gas generated by bacteria living in our gastrointestinal systems — is apparently produced by an enzyme in blood vessels that relaxes them and lowers blood pressure.

Animal tests at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore even showed rodents with higher levels of hydrogen sulphide had lower blood pressure than other mice.

Now researchers at China’s Southeast University in Nanjing are determining if those results could lead to the creation of a high blood pressure treatment for humans. But Professor Yao Yuyu warned that “the gas could have negative effects on other parts of the body.”

Not to mention the effects it might have on one’s social life. Living longer is nice, yeah, but not when you’re in a toxic cloud that ensures no one will want to be near you.